Barrel Aged Early Retirement
Cerebral Brewing

a generous beer mail item from my homeboy, what a gem, even 2022 vintage with this much coffee still doing really well, much to my surprise, and there is a bit of fade, but its not yucky oxidation, and i think all the elements still are appreciable, very cool stuff, they have done a nice job branching out in this series, a now really memorable range of big beers! porter or stout is really not consequential here, with this level of body and adjunct, im not sure its appreciable one way or the other, which was not really the case at all with the working vacation edition, at least in my recent experience, odd but true. anyway, the pour is thick and black and sticky looking, but not totally flat, a short mocha head rises up and stays a little while, leggy and sweet looking, high shine, some flakey dark sediment at the very bottom only. the aroma is barrel forward, good bourbon, char, and that vanilla oak thing, obviously accentuated by the added vanilla. hazelnut is appreciable as is the fading coffee, those have the same moment in here. less banana than i think i wanted from a beer that puts it in, maybe it was more bold when it was fresh, but this was from the era when every cool kid stout maker was using thai bananas, which have a plantain-like starch character to me, and maybe arent as robust as the normal banana in terms of added flavor, but its a cool touch anyway, kind of generically tropical i guess as a vibe more than something tangible, but its cool. the maple is strong, awesome with the coffee, and there well past the swallow, nice dark roast from the base beer, a chocolate layer, very good overall quality and use of these ingredients. the flavor is similar to the nose, lots of dark coffee, good beans with some mild fatigue, but high bitterness, low acid, deep roast, dark chocolate character, nice with the barrel elements and also all the maple, gorgeous balance there. the hazelnut is subtle as is the banana, but not invisible, i taste quite a lot of malt too beyond the dark stuff, well built base beer here for sure. some deep nuttiness to this beyond the added hazelnut element, some cool nuance to the barrels as well, lots of wood, tons of residual sweetness from the maple, light char and smoke, it all comes together so well, not too much vanilla, maple well on front of that. maybe not a lot of cellar time left for this one, so drink it if you have one, the coffee is going, but thisis still really good, nice and mature and very flavorful, mellowing alcohol for its strength too, yum!

L: Pours a thick black color with a small tan head and no lacing on the glass.

S: Rich maple syrup intermingled with coffee and a light nutty hazelnut with some vanilla.

T: Sweet thick maple syrup slowly intermingles earthy coffee, followed by a nutty hazelnut and some vanilla, a very tasty and decadent brew.

F: Slick oily feel with a larger body.

O: This is a delicious dessert stout.